A Common Sense Approach to Rental Properties

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The Case For Rentals

I’ve owned and managed low and middle income rentals in Indianapolis for over 17 years now, through the good times and the bad. My goal was to purchase these rental properties for income and long-term investment. I’ve flipped a few along the way, but that’s never been my model. Through the years, I added property management to my list of skills … other people’s homes or rental properties.

Why invest in rentals? There are a couple reasons:

1) Housing is a universal need. Regardless of fluctuations in the economy, people need a roof over their head. And even when everything in the housing market went to hell through 2008 and beyond, my rentals held strong. Yes, there was more turnover (people were losing their jobs and/or getting laid off more frequently) but I had no trouble filling my vacancies.

2) There’s a segment of the population that will never be homeowners … those who earn less than $30,000/year will most likely be renters throughout their lives. And according to the last census, that segment included about 35% of the population. Furthermore, since the housing collapse, many people have become more wary of buying homes, and even those who can afford it (and get financing) are choosing to rent instead.

Indianapolis is a wonderful city in which to work and raise a family … it didn’t see the horrible downturn in the housing market that some other areas experienced. Our rental market is strong and will continue to be strong in the foreseeable future.